Ritual

Ritual forms part of all our lives. Using the term in its broadest sense, ritual ranges from the religious to the profane, and takes an extraordinary array of shapes and forms. The symbolic behaviours we perform are surprisingly ubiquitous across cultures and time.

In this latest instalment of his photojournalism feature ‘This World,’ CABLE Contributing Editor David Pratt takes us from voodoo darkness in Haiti, to the gentleness of traditional Cambodian dance. Along the way, we follow the Stations of the Cross in East Jerusalem, witness a newly married refugee couple in Lebanon, and the celebration of spearfishing divers in Spain. Ritual is inexhaustible. This portfolio gives us an insight into some of the symbolic acts that bind us as human beings.

IMAGE 1/20: An Israeli soldier writes a prayer message before posting it at the Western Wall. Jerusalem (1988)

IMAGE 17/20: Christian pilgrims follow the Stations of the Cross in East Jerusalem at Easter (1989).

IMAGE 18/20: A Sandinista soldier has his photograph taken before heading off to active service during the Contra War. Nicaragua (1987).

IMAGE 19/20: Traditional Cambodian dancers – the first troupe to be brought together after the genocide by the Khmer Rouge – rehearse in a temple in Phnom Penh. Their predecessors were all killed. Cambodia (1992).

IMAGE 20/20: The religious melting pot that is East Jerusalem where Jews, Christians, and Muslims rub shoulders in a myriad of rituals (1988).

David Pratt is a multi-award winning journalist, photographer, broadcaster and editor. As a correspondent, his specialist areas include conflict, humanitarian, security and intelligence issues, especially in the Arab and Islamic world and sub-Saharan Africa. He is a Contributing Editor to CABLE and at the Herald/Sunday Herald. He is on Twitter at:@foreigncorr1

Feature image: A young woman from the indigenous Embera people with traditional markings and dress, deep in the rainforest of the Choco region in Colombia (2014).